Does Your Birth Date Affect Your Success At School And Later Life?

New research suggests being older than your classmates is a big advantage

What you need to know

New research suggests older children relative to their peers have more success at school and in their careers

Being older makes children more mature, confident and likely to take risks

It turns out your birth date can have a huge impact on your self-confidence, desire for risk-taking and overall success at school and career, according to new research published by The Conversation.

Of course, if you’re an astrologer, you knew this already. But, this has got nothing to do with being a Pisces, Cancer or Sagittarius. Though, if you are the latter you should know that the current positioning of Venus and Jupiter means when it comes to matters of love and romance you need to tone things down a bit, so stop drunk-texting your ex at 3am.

The reason for this (‘this’ being the research, not the drunk-texting) is that a kid’s birthdate determines the cut-off date for when they can begin school, and therefore determines whether they are old or young relative to the other kids in their year level. This is pretty critical during primary and high-school because older children in a year level tend to be more mature and taller than their peers, some of whom may be up to 11 months younger.

Heaps of research has already shown that the older a child is relative to their peers, the more likely they are to have career success later in life, from competing in professional sport, as well as achieving success in business and politics.

This is because, according to research by the Queensland University of Technology, being older than one’s peers makes a child more likely to take risks and feel confident in doing so. This confidence and tendency for risk-taking is then carried into adulthood.

So what should prospective parents do with this information? Well, the only thing to do is to find out what the cut-off date is for your future kid’s school (cut-off dates tend to vary from state to state) and make sure to time the conception exactly eight months and 30 days beforehand. That way, they’ll be the oldest kid in their year level and when they become prime minister they’ll have you and your excellent scheduling to thank.